Typically, gas turbine engines include a compressor for compressing air, a combustor for mixing the compressed air with fuel and igniting the mixture, and a turbine blade assembly for producing power.
Typically, gas turbine engines start at ambient temperatures, which at times can be cold, such as five degrees Celsius or below. Cold ambient temperatures can negatively affect the material properties of the compressor rotor, limiting the cyclic life of these components. Typically, the row one compressor disk is most affected by cold ambient temperatures since there is no heating of the gas path prior to the stage. Attempts have been made to increase the life spans of the compressor components by limiting the start temperatures to higher ambient temperatures, by applying more expensive blade materials to reduce blade mass or introduce more expensive disk materials to improve fracture toughness, by applying use of inlet heaters to raise the temperature of the inlet air, by overspeeding rotation of the rotor to introduce residual compressive stresses, and by combinations of these actions. Nonetheless, an efficient and cost effective system is still needed.